Hell Teacher Nube 45

In the cycle of life and death, a soul should be reborn into a new life losing memories of their past one. But there are faults in this cycle, particularly as Hiroshi discovers someone unexpected making a preposterous claim!

#45: Memories of a Previous Existence

67.
Narrator: Rinne Tensei--…After a person dies, they become a different person and are reborn; at that moment, they lose their memories of their previous existence, but there are seldom times where the memories of the previous existence remain.
Narrator: In a grade school in a certain town, there was one who said “here is where I lived”, even though she had come to the town for the first time when in her former town which she had gone to on a trip and correctly guessed to in detail the town’s geography…
Narrator: At another school, there was a friend who died saying “I will be reborn as twins after I die” and, many years later, she was greeted by twin babies that seemed like they couldn’t talk on a street corner. There is no end to the strange stories like these.

68.
Narrator: Memories of a previous existence…suddenly being revived one day, as if it’s a prank of god…
Hiroshi: I’m going, father!
Mr. Tateno: OK, do your best!
Narrator: Tateno Hiroshi—his mother died a natural death when he was 3 and now lives as a duo with his father.
Voice: HIROSHI!

69.
Voice: In the short time I haven’t seen you…yo…you’ve gotten big…
Hiroshi: Eh…wh…what are you?
“Reiko”: Don’t you know who I am!? I’M YOUR MOTHER, HIROSHI!!
Badge: SAKURA CLASS – KATOU REIKO

70.
Reiko: Eight years have passed since then………
Mrs. Katou: Ju…just a moment, Reiko-chan, what are you saying!?
Reiko: Ah, Hiroshi, hold on!! I’m mother!! Don’t you understand!?
Mrs. Katou: Reiko-chan, you’re—
SFX: DA!
Hiroshi: What’s with that brat; this feels bad--…
Hiroshi: --Well, she did call me that—
Hiroshi: My mother was a kindergartener. How~~~detestable—
Kyouko: Do you really not know?
Hiroshi: I have this! My mother died when I was 3. I really don’t remember either her face or voice. I suppose I felt “who are you?” even if the real thing was revived—huh.

71.
Miki: Hiroshi-kun has to be planted with the love of a mother. For that sort of man, it’s better to have a huge-breasted woman.
SFX: HORE HORE
Kyouko: That girl still hasn’t given up~~
Hiroshi: I’m certain she was playing house too much and became strange from it.
SFX: GARA
Hiroshi: Really, kids these days…
(TN: Hiroshi really was actually calling Reiko “Wakai” or “Young”, but “kids” works due to the old expression)
Reiko: Ah~~ah~~~Hiroshi-chan has already made his desk this dirty.
Hiroshi: BU~~!!
SFX: DODODODO
Reiko: Well! He shouldn’t be living with a man after all with this left-over lunch bread left in the desk.
Kyouko: Th…this girl is!?
Hiroshi: She pursued me to here…
Nube: Hey, you, what’s the matter with your kindergarten?
Hiroshi: Teacher.

72.
Reiko: I’m Hiroshi’s mother. I’m always indebted to you for Hiroshi..
SFX: PEKO
Nube: Huh! His mother? Well, yet again you’re extremely young…
Hiroshi: Idiot?
Hiroshi: What exactly are you! What purpose are you following me!?
Reiko: What…your mother came to be reborn wanting to meet you.
Hiroshi: Re…reborn!? This kindergartener is my mother!? It’s a lie, I can’t approve—of this.
“Diagram”: Picture of Hiroshi taking the benevolence of a kindergartener.
“Hiroshi”: Mama—
“Reiko”: Oh—there there.
(TN: The verb involving “benevolence” is a term specific to the Japanese known as “amaeru”, which literally stands for “to act like a spoiled child” or “to take the benevolence of another”. This factor of benevolence is crucial in Japanese society, where people take the favor of another akin to, and here’s the key, “the care that a mother gives to a child”…of course with the “mother” being a kindergartener and the child being a 5th grader…everything’s become warped and weird in how it should be done in this scenario…thus the diagram and Hiroshi’s freaked out behavior)
Kyouko: Nube…
Nube: Ye—s…

73.
Nube: This is a story that’s too much to be the lie of a child…we need to investigate this…
Kyouko: This here is the house Hiroshi lived in when he was young—
Miki: It’s an amazingly—worn-out house!
Reiko: How nostalgic: the sweet home that I’ve spent my newly-wed days with father.
Hiroshi: No good: it’s become vacant. We can’t open it.
Nube: Should we ask a landlord and borrow the key…
Reiko: Its fine: there’s always a key hidden here…
Nube: GYO!!
Reiko: The right of the entrance is a joint-bathroom. The interior is the janitorial room.
Nube: GYO GYO H…how do you know of this!?

74.
Reiko: There are 85 stains on the ceiling of this room.
Nube: How could you even know that…
Reiko: Well my shy self was pushed on forcefully when I spent my first night with father in this room and he said “Count the stains on the ceiling; this will be over while you do”.
SFX: PO
Miki: I hadn’t known Hiroshi’s father was a lolicon… (With that little girl…)
(TN: “Lolicon” is a notable Japanese term for a “Lolita complex”, generally in conjunction with a male love of a female child)
“Mr. Tateno”: Guhehe…
“Reiko”: No—o
Hiroshi: You’re imagining strange things!
Hiroshi: How is it, Nube, is this for real!?
Nube: Yes…it seems she’s not speaking lies but…
Reiko: Ah.
Reiko: This floor scar…this was when you were making mischief in the kitchen…the pot and kitchen knife fell and I was afraid at the time that you couldn’t get hurt.

75.
Hiroshi: About that story, I heard it from father. Actually my mother got hurt on her right shoulder at that time…
Reiko: Did that make you understand? Call me mother.
Hiroshi: It’s a lie! That became evidence?
Kyouko: Teacher…!!

76.
Reiko: HI
SFX: POU
Nube: The Oni no Te is reading her heart by touching her soul…it would be the same as having a person who exists as a partner. But then I rarely use this since it affects their privacy.
Nube: Hiroshi…this girl isn’t lying…this girl truly is the reincarnation of your mother…and her memories clearly are remaining…!
Hiroshi: Eh

77.
Nube: Having come to this, this is already a question of the space the interval of parent and child. This isn’t the place for the third-party teacher to interject…forgive me, Hiroshi.
Hiroshi: That’s~~~
Reiko: Well, let’s go, Hiroshi-chan!
Nube: However…the memories of her previous existence are way too strong! With this, the personality of this kindergartener girl will…
Nube: Still, I can’t even separate them uselessly; should I watch their appearances for a bit now…

78.
Reiko: I haven’t done anything that makes me seem like a mother to you. Today I should indulge you with all my heart.
Reiko: How much?
Shopkeeper: His little sister?
Reiko: Hiroshi-cha~~n, turn here~~
Hiroshi: This is my 5th time…
Reiko: Here! It’s all your favorite things. You should eat these.
Waitress 1: Well, in spite of being her big brother
Waitress 2: Eating all those good things by himself.
Reiko: Here, let’s—go pee—here we go.
Hiroshi: Don’t go here~~!

79.
Reiko: Ah~~that was fun!
Reiko: Doing like that, everyone will think we’re mother and child—huh?
Hiroshi: NO ONE WILL THINK THAT
Reiko: Hey, can’t you call me the single word of “mother”?
Hiroshi: I won’t even if I die!
Reiko: ……
Nube: Um…Reiko-chan…no, Hiroshi’s mother, can we talk for a moment…

80.
Reiko: HIROSHI
Reiko: Today really was fun. I thought you weren’t going to have lonely thoughts with the death of your mother but…I’m relieved you were fine.
Hiroshi: Ah, right.
Reiko: I have no regrets anymore…teacher, go ahead: please erase my memories.
Hiroshi: EH…?
Reiko: The memories of my previous existence were so strong that it appeared that it isn’t good for the personality of this child…Reiko-chan…I want to be your mother forever but…if I was, it would make this child’s mother sad. I can’t do that.
Reiko: I had wanted you to call me the one word of “mother” but…nothing I can do.
Reiko: Well, teacher, please go ahead.
Nube: Eeh.
Hiroshi: Ah…

81.
Nube: NAMU DAIJI DAIHI KYUUGU KYUUNAN: ERASE THE MEMORIES OF HER PREVIOUS EXISTENCE!
Hiroshi: Wait
Reiko: Huh~~where am I—mama—who are you, uncle--?
Nube: Uncle…
Hiroshi: Ah…ah…

82.
Hiroshi: I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY MOTHER! I…I WAS JUST SO EMBARRASSEEED.
Hiroshi: I was truly lonely all along not having my mother…! At class visits, at athletic meets, when father’s not there at work, when at dinner eating alone…always…always!! And yet…and yet, I…

83.
Voice: You dummy.
SFX: SU…
Voice: Boys shouldn’t be weeping.
Mrs. Tateno: But…you’ve called me mother at last. Thank you, Hiroshi-chan…

84.
Nube: People are reborn by the endless rebirth cycle…but it’s not to fix their previous life. It’s so they can start a new life. It seems cold for that reason, but it’s better to forget the memories of the previous existence…

85.
Mrs. Katou: I truly thank you for watching over this child…there was uproar with her disappearance from the kindergarten suddenly.
Mrs. Katou: Well, shall we go home, Reiko?
Reiko: OK…
Reiko: Mama, well, when I get older, I’m going to have a child like big brother.
(TN: Assumably it isn’t “like a big brother” but more “like big brother” as in Hiroshi)
Mrs. Katou: Wh…why is this girl saying this stupid thing!
Narrator: There are many companion beings connected in a previous existence who mutually come down…
Nube: That seemed awkward: not being embarrassed in being indulged by your mother.
Hiroshi: That was embarrassing.
Miki: That’s—fine~~she was cute~~your mother—
Narrator: Perhaps even your close friends or lover may have a shallow connection to a previous existence…

86.
<BINBOUGAMI>

Creation: A tad cute, but actually a really scary youkai. People possessed by it rapidly become unlucky and in the end lose their life!!

Commentary: This was chosen because it’s simple but interesting. It’s scary since poverty is a terribly serious problem for Nube. It resembles a bit of the JBS mascot.
(TN: We’ll be going into “Binbougami” or the “God of Poverty” in a later volume. It won’t look like this but it will be scary…oh, and JBS = “Jump Broadcasting System”, a mini-manga that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump between October, 1982 and December, 1995 [the period many consider as the magazine’s “golden age” of which this was still during] that had like little comics and silly bits by the Jump staff)

TN: Here I go again with my paranoia. Once again, a Nube chapter sort of crosses the line regarding respectable content to many with it's bizarre concepts...and I worry about who is going to kill me for it, in particular considering...it involves a little girl acting like Hiroshi's mom! But you know what, who cares: I love this chapter...and no I'm not a pedophile! The idea of Hiroshi's mom popping back into life as Reiko is a risky concept that would have been horrible by some mangaka, but turned via this series into a cute, fun concept that questions the ideas of love, respect and even age! (well that or the whole diagram of Hiroshi taking motherly love from Reiko...well it's that or Miki's nightmarish "Pedobear moment" regarding Mr. Tateno...but she brought it on herself talking about her "first time" while in the body of a little girl!) But ultimately the chapter just came to certain truths that ended up leading to a rather tear-jerker finale: Hiroshi finally came to accept what his mom had done for him even though she was gone when he was young...and Mrs. Tateno was able to get closure on her former life before becoming Reiko permanently. (and...yeah, you could get MILF-feelings for the real Mrs. Tateno and it wouldn't feel wrong...just remember to not think of her as Reiko at those moments) But as I said: it's a fun chapter and while I can see how some could get offended, you just have to take it in stride with this series.